9 May – Maurice Sendak, who is widely hailed the most important children's book artist of the 20th century, died in Danbury, Connecticut yesterday morning at the age of 83 due to complications of a stroke, according to The New York Times.
Sendak was the man who wrenched children out of their safe and innocent nursery and plunged them into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche through more than a dozen picture books he wrote and illustrated himself, his best known being "Where The Wild Things Are", which was also adapted to film in 2009 by Spike Jonze.
First published in 1963 by Harper & Row, the film stars newcomer Max Records, and features the voices of James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Lauren Ambrose, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O'Hara and Chris Cooper. It chronicles the coming-of-age journey of a lonely eight-year-old boy named Max who sails away to an island inhabited by creatures known as the "Wild Things" when he is sent to bed without supper one day and he declares himself their king. However, Max soon learns that there are responsibilities to be had in life, and in the end, returns home to his distraught mother.
Other notable works from Sendak are his illustrations for Else Holmelund Minarik's "Little Bear" series of books, Isaac Bashevis Singer's "Zlateh the Goat" and his books "In the Night Kitchen" and "Outside Over There".
Born Maurice Bernard Sendak in Brooklyn on 10 June 1928, Sendak was known to be an open gay with a partner, psychoanalyst Dr. Eugene Glynn, whom he lived with for 50 years. His final book, "Bumble-Ardy", was published eight months prior to his death.
